Iron Cross

Is it risky to attack Seattle? Of course it is risky!

On the one hand, Kakuta did not send aircraft to scout Seattle's air defense strength. He thought it would be easy to alert the enemy. How could the defense of the place where the aircraft was produced not be tight?

On the other hand, Kakuta's fleet had very little fuel left. Not only had the oil in the tankers they initially carried been completely consumed (part of it was destroyed by the bombing of the US Army Air Force), but according to the latest statistics at dusk, the fuel of each ship was basically only 30-35%. The oil-guzzling Musashi only had more than 2,000 tons of heavy oil (full load 6,300 tons), which was only enough to maintain a cruising range of more than 2,200 nautical miles at an economic speed (16 knots). If it was at full combat speed (more than 24 knots), even a cruising range of 1,500 nautical miles would be in danger. In other words, Kakuta's fleet now had no ability to go to Lima, let alone the Galapagos Island for supplies.

If it were anyone else, they would probably be going crazy now - Pearl Harbor still had 400,000 tons of fuel in stock, so the US military felt very unsafe. However, after the two crazy guys, Kakuta and Nishimura, discussed it, not only did they not intend to withdraw, but they actually decided to take the fleet to attack Boeing - they said they would attack as long as they were not detected by US aircraft that day. In the end, they won the bet, and no US reconnaissance aircraft were seen until the sun set.

Of course, Kakuta and Nishimura did not think they were sending themselves to death, and they believed that there were sufficient grounds for this:

First, the news that the TF50 fleet had left the port and Hori Teikichi was about to attack Pearl Harbor had been clear, and Kakuta's fleet was responsible for creating a gap for the operation;

Second, Kakuta believed that the support fleet was close to the north of Pearl Harbor, and the Tsukahara fleet was heading north, so they did not need to go to Lima or Galapagos, and could just find a fleet to refuel;

Third, Kakuta believed that even if they did not refuel for the time being, they could save fuel and support themselves for 4-5 days. On the last day, they could save some life-saving fuel and hide in a remote corner, waiting for others to rescue them. He even chose the location, which was in the North Pacific, taking the center of the Aleutian Islands, the West Coast and Hawaii, each of which was more than 2,000 kilometers away from the fleet. He believed that even if he stopped here and anchored, the US Pacific Fleet would not be able to do anything to him.

It sounds crazy. Before the war, anyone who made such a plan would be called a "deer", but now the Japanese have gone crazy: they easily captured Midway Island and Christmas Island without bloodshed, besieged Hawaii, blockaded the West Coast, Kakuta teased Los Angeles, and Tsukahara attacked Panama three times. A series of successes have already made the Combined Fleet furious. At first, the US crew's replacement of tankers made everyone a little hesitant. After Hori Teikichi approved it, and then dozens of tankers were continuously prepared and in place, and the Americans could not bear the losses and retreated, even a calm person like Tsukahara began to swell up, and even the Nagato cannon hit America - if you don't agree, come and fight me!

Finally, everyone has no ground troops. Except for the Galapagos Island, others have not thought about occupying a territory to land. In addition, the German side said that it would not attack Panama until December. If Germany's attitude was a little warmer and sent troops earlier, Tsukahara would really go directly to Central America to meet the German troops ashore.

Hori Teikichi was very clear about the mentality of the Combined Fleet, so he insisted on leading the team himself - only he could control the situation. If someone else were to replace him, even Yamamoto Isoroku would not be able to speak effectively now. Of course, it was not possible to force pressure, and we had to take advantage of the situation, so he sent a telegram to Kakuta to pay attention to safety - as soon as he heard that Kakuta was going to silence the radio, he could probably guess what Kakuta wanted to do; then he sent a telegram to Tsukahara, first praising the success of the three attacks on Panama and teaching a lesson to the Central American fence-sitters "greatly boosted morale", but hoped that he would pay attention to saving shells - Lima could replenish fuel, and it could also replenish some German aerial bombs through Argentina. Could it be possible to replenish shells for the Nagato or Yamato class?

Matsuda Chiaki was impressed by the superior's extraordinary ability to see through people's hearts. The two telegrams were very subtle reminders, but the effect was no less.

With Hori Teikichi's reminder to "pay attention to safety", Arima Masafumi, the chief of staff of the Second Air Fleet, was very careful when deploying tactics: the attack group did not fly directly to Seattle, but first flew to Vancouver (Vancouver is only 200 kilometers away from Seattle). His reason was that although the Americans were the emperors of the British and Canadians, he did not believe that the Americans could directly take over the air defense command system of a key city like Vancouver - this face between countries should still be given, so he was prepared to attack the weaknesses of the Canadians' slow response and lack of experience.

Tsukahara 243 issued the west coast attack order to the Americans, and it was delayed for three weeks. I believe that the nerves of the highly nervous officers and soldiers should have relaxed at this time.

This gamble won. The Canadians were very nervous in early October, but after half a month, this energy began to relax. After all, up to now, Canada has not been attacked - Newfoundland was just a scare. Moreover, although Canada has also strengthened its own air defense measures, these equipment, weapons, devices and even personnel need to rely on the help of Americans. The US military cannot take care of Canadians when it is busy with its own affairs. Therefore, everything went smoothly after the attack group entered Canada. Even the group turned south less than 70 kilometers away from Vancouver did not arouse the vigilance of the Canadians, not to mention the use of anti-aircraft guns and night fighters to intercept.

At 5:17 in the morning, the Japanese attack group officially entered the United States, 125 kilometers away from Seattle. The whole city was still immersed in sleep. Only the early milkers in the dairy heard the low roar of the plane - but they didn't know what it was.

At 5:19, the radar station northwest of Seattle detected a large number of aircraft flying in, nearly 140 in number, but the sergeant on duty hesitated again and again and gave up because it was obviously coming from the direction of Canada - perhaps the Canadians got lost during early morning training?

At 5:21, the second radar station finally found something wrong. The radar station often monitors the takeoff of Boeing's fleet and knows that this airspace is rarely entered by the Canadians, not to mention the US military - fearing a collision with the Boeing fleet, because the plane came from the direction of Canada, he called the security command to report, and the call was quickly connected, but the duty sergeant heard that it came from the direction of Canada and said he would verify it and give a reply in 1 minute.

One minute later, there was no need to give a reply, because the Japanese planes had arrived at the Everett factory area of ​​Boeing in the northern suburbs of Seattle - it was exactly 50 kilometers away from the city, and the factory area covering hundreds of hectares had appeared in front of the enemy planes.

The Japanese knew exactly where Boeing was, because before the fallout, the Japanese Army and Navy had sent people to visit and even imported a lot of aircraft and engines from the United States.

The bright flares were dropped, and soon the factory building below was discovered - as a place to build large bombers, the layout was really large. In addition, in order to make up for the consumption of the Army Aviation, Boeing rushed to produce aircraft day and night. Although a certain amount of blackout was adopted, low-flying aircraft could still see dots of light radiating through the curtains.

"All-army assault!"

The incendiary bombs were dropped...

The 250-kilogram bombs were dropped...

The 20mm machine guns strafed the ground...

At this time, the anti-aircraft guns guarding Boeing woke up from their dreams, but it was too late.

The huge factory building was blown up with a rumble, and the crowd ran out in a panic, and ran into the strafing from the sky and the incendiary liquid splashing everywhere.

The cries, shouts, screams, alarms, and explosions gathered into a ball.

Dozens of planes on the assembly line were either destroyed by bombs or buried by collapsed concrete blocks; hundreds of B-29s parked neatly on the apron and waiting to be driven away were turned into fragments in the chain explosion of bombs and fuel tanks; a large number of factory buildings were destroyed in the explosion.

The Japanese pilots who dived to drop bombs had a hit rate of more than 70% on fixed targets. No building was left undestroyed by the 250 kg bombs: the assembly workshop, multiple wing and fuselage production workshops, administrative centers, research and development buildings, engine storage centers, hangars, test fuel depots, and even ground anti-aircraft firepower points were gradually reduced to ruins

The fire burned fiercely, partly due to the incendiary bombs, partly due to the oil and even lubricants in the production area, and partly due to the tires, paint, and wood products, which illuminated the surrounding area of ​​the factory, making it more convenient for the Japanese army to bomb and strafe the buildings that had not yet been hit.

The Army Air Force hurriedly launched fighters from other airports to rescue, and indeed shot down several planes, but these crashed planes eventually crashed into various buildings, and the unburned gasoline stirred up pillars of fire.

At 6:14, the flight captain Guan Wei, seeing that more and more American fighters were arriving at the scene, and the bombs were basically dropped, issued an order for "all troops to retreat" and deliberately dispersed to retreat - the sky would soon be bright, even if they dispersed into a small formation to retreat, it would not hinder the pilots from finding the mother ship.

Two minutes later, the Japanese planes left, leaving only the sleepless night in Seattle...

"Sir, the surprise attack was successful! The pilots have retreated."

"Very good, prepare to gather the planes, the anti-aircraft fighters are ready, and we will also start to retreat!"

At 6:28, the Kakuta fleet turned westward to prepare to meet the fleet returning 90 minutes later. At that time, the fleet was only 650 kilometers away from the west coast and was in a very dangerous area.

"Boeing factory attacked? Is this a joke?" Arnold heard the bad news as soon as he arrived at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Immediately find out the losses and deploy a counterattack!"

"How many planes do we have in Seattle?"

"Less than 300. I'm going to ask the Canadians for help."

Nimitz and MacArthur looked very unhappy. Boeing is the main force in bomber manufacturing and has undertaken at least half of the production of 4-engine heavy bombers. Although there are factories in other states that can produce B-29, there will be a lot of trouble next.

Truman also learned the news soon. He ordered with a grim face: "Fight back with all your strength, and quickly find out the losses and recovery time of Boeing. Those who fail to perform their duties on duty, no matter how high their level, will be handed over to military courts for trial..."